Those Velvet Eyes Eclare
by heatwavegirlx
Summary: Eli G. has been giving Clare mixed signals, what do they mean and can Clare figure out what's happening between one another?
1. Chapter 1

**Dance With Your Enemies, Chapter 1**

Clare's fingers hastily fumbled with the lock on her locker trying to get the combination straight. In all her rush last night, cramming to finish a poster, it seemed she had forgotten one of the most vital parts of her schedule - sleep. So, this morning she'd accidently slept in and was forced to skip breakfast and catch a ride with her mother to Degrassi, and running on two hours of sleep was making it extremely difficult to be functional.

Finally successful with the lock she grabbed her text books and slammed the locker just as the bell was ringing, practically running to her first class of the day.

"So what is this today? Are you just going to ignore me or something all day?"

Clare jumped slightly, coming out of her little world of reading during lunch, waiting for Alli to show up and bother her about whatever new news she had on her little Drew situation. But the voice was from a guy, not a girl which surprised Clare at first.

Turning her head slightly, she glimpsed dark hair and shiny green eyes staring back at her, with a mouth curved in a bothersome smirk and eyebrows raised, poised for an answer. Clare furrowed her own eyebrows, confused.

"What do you mean? I haven't talked to anyone today, or seen anyone aside from the people in my morning classes."

Eli lowered himself all not too gently on the seat next to Clare, putting his bag on the table. "Ha!" He let out a fake laugh, "I've said 'Hello' to you at least three times now and all three times you've just pretended I'm nonexistent. Is there some hint in there that I should be leaving you alone?"

Clare paused for a moment trying to recall if this was true, the part about being greeted by him that morning multiple times. "But - no you didn't. What? I'm so lost here. Obviously I didn't hear you or see you because I definitely would have at the very least waved." She shook her head and sighed, "That or it's my lack of sleep kicking in."

Leaning his elbows on the table and fiddling with a paper clip, Eli's eyebrows were raised again, "How much sleep did you even get last night? I mean, I know you were working on that poster for Dawes but seriously it wasn't that hard. Flip on a few pictures and captions and ta-da you're done."

Clare looked away from him and glanced at her book not actually reading it just needing something else to look at, "Well I'm not exactly one for settling for an average grade because of an average poster, unlike you. I actually put effort into mine."

Eli laughed sarcastically, "Wow, quite the blow there for someone getting a worse grade in that class than I have."

Clare's face got red and she pouted slightly, "The only reason you have a better grade is because of that stupid writer's block I had for only a couple assignments." Her chin was then turned slightly by Eli's finger which had slipped itself under,

"No need to get frustrated, I'm just playing with you."

And just when Clare's heartbeat had started to speed up for any number of reasons she couldn't explain at that current time, Eli poked her cheek laughing boisterously and grabbing his bag getting up, and walking away to catch up with Adam.

The nerve the boy had really got Clare going sometimes.

"Presentations will go in order from each column of desks, starting over to my left."

Mrs. Dawes gestured towards the column next to the one Clare's desk was situated. Letting out a small sigh, Clare fiddled with the corner of her poster. The assignment had been to choose a biography and draw some images you thought might illustrate the most important events, with captions explaining. Clare's poster had come out better than she had hoped, and she was really feeling good about it, it was simple, to go along with the book's cover, but still had decorations and well placed boxes with their contents to make it look sophisticated, almost a work of art. The drawings had taken her forever too, and she had drawn most of them at least three times before finally choosing which one she liked best. Now all that was left was the presentation of the poster, a quarter of the grade. And being tired was really not going to help her at all in that situation.

Minutes passed by, she watched Eli do a presentation, though she wasn't even paying attention by that time nor had any more attention span left due to the number of people that had already presented. Then her turn came up, and as Clare made her way to the front slowly, dragging the Glass Castle book and her poster with her, praying for a bell to ring to signal the end of class - like a godsend, it did ring.

She rushed to her seat and stuffed her poster back into her bag along with the book, eager to head home and catch a few z's. Momentarily interrupted though by Eli who blocked her way out of the classroom, "I know you're tired, but you should so go with me to the Dot in twenty. Wanna?"

Clare shook her head and tried a smile, "Sure whatever. Twenty. But only for twenty. Or I might pass out."

"Sweet! See you in a bit!" Eli rushed away out of the door. Clare meandered along slowly, wondering why she had agreed to that when she knew she was so tired already. And also why Eli had asked her, was it just to chat? A date? Friends? Whatever it was, she was about to find out.

**Chapter 2 Coming Soon, **

_Did Eli invite Clare as a friend? Or a date? _

_And why all the mixed signals?_

_Also featured coming up: Fitz_


	2. Chapter 2

The Dot's door creaked slightly as someone entered in before Clare, through the cracks she could hear someone laughing and people chattering loudly, between the sound of fresh coffee brewing and Peter swearing to himself that he had just oiled the door hinges. Clare nodded graciously to the person in front of her as they held the door open. Peering around as she entered, she spotted Sav, and Adam sitting in a corner talking loudly to one another. Eli was over there as well.

Clare narrowed her eyes and she walked over slowly, not sure if when Eli had invited her a little while ago, he had invited her to this little get together or if he was going to branch of with her. She preferred the latter, because she didn't really know the others very well. Though the same could probably be said for Eli as well.

Catching his eye, Eli looked up and grinned interrupting something Sav was saying, "Hey Clare! Glad you finally made it!"

To Clare's surprise, Sav chimed in, "Yeah, grab a chair and join us!" He had never seemed so inviting before, always wrapped up with Anya and his band and closer friends.

Tentatively, Clare dragged a chair over, between Adam and Eli who had made a space for her. She mumbled a thanks as she dropped her bag on the floor next to her.

"We were just discussing Inception. Man it's hot! And Ellen Page... Whew! What a babe!" Adam seemed very enthused about it, and was given a quizzical look by the others, including Clare.

"What a babe? Who even says that anymore?" Eli shook his head, then directed his attention over to Clare trying to brief her a bit better, "I haven't seen Inception yet. The other two are trying to convince me to go see it tonight with them again."

Clare shrugged, "So, are you? I haven't seen it either. Looks pretty intense but it got good reviews."

Sav glanced at her, "You actually take the time to read reviews?"

Nodding she gave a slightly amused smile, "Yeah, they're really helpful actually. Let's me know if the movie is worth wasting my money on it or n-"

She was interrupted by Eli bringing his hands together, "I've got it then! Clare, if you go then I'll go!"

All the guys around the table had their eyes turned to her now, Adam and Sav sending her wishes in their heads for her to say yes, she'd go. Eli waiting for a response with a face almost unreadable to any common person. She was so tempted to say yes, to please everyone and even herself, maybe because Eli seemed so enthusiastic about the prospect of going if Clare went, though that could have been her imagination, if not for him just finding a way to get out of going. But all feelings aside, she needed sleep, desperately. And she needed to finish her work for school tomorrow. Sighing, she started to open her mouth to say something, but again, was interrupted by Eli.

"C'mon you said so yourself, it got good reviews. And you have two reviewers in flesh right here right now."

She stopped herself from saying anything, and looked at Eli with confusion, "Wait, what if I said no? Would you still go? Because you just said-"

"Yeah I know what I said, and I don't know. But I still think you should go." Eli winked at her. Or at least, Clare thought she had seen something like a wink there, "Please? For meee?" He attempted to bat his eyes like a little girl, but it made his face look a bit more contorted than he meant to. Adam started laughing but tried the same. Only to get the same result.

Sighing, she nodded, "Fine. I'll go - but if I get a bad grade on tomorrow's presentation for Mrs. Dawes because I've still yet to get much sleep, you're the one I'll blame."

Eli laughed throwing his hands up, only to high five a smiling Sav and giddy Adam, "Fine whatever! You're going at least!"

"I need to head home and do some work first now though, if I'm going to make it. What time?"

"Seven. And bring some money for snacks because we're heading right over there after here, so we're gonna be broke by then."

Rolling her eyes she smiled, "Fine. Whatever." She mimicked him, made a face, and then grabbed her bag heading out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

Clare pushed a strand of her curly, and now short, hair away from her face. She had to admit, getting her hair cut had probably been one of the greatest decisions she'd made this year. She liked the look, and how open it made her face look. Though the loss of glasses probably factored into that too. Which was the other great decision she'd made. And to think, that was, was had brought Eli and herself together for the first time, face to face. She had to admit, she had been quite smitten during that moment. To get a compliment from a guy right after complaining to Alli that nobody had noticed her eyes was like magic. A godsend. Now if only Eli and her could see eye to eye, they might be going places. But her thoughts stopped abruptly there, not wanting to get ahead of herself. Eli was a friend, a good friend. One she barely knew. But then, maybe that was what made it feel so special to her, what made Eli feel so different from KC -

Except, why was she comparing Eli to KC? She had dated KC, and nobody except maybe Alli had mentioned anything about being more than good friends with Eli. Her thoughts were seriously confusing her, Putting everything into one huge whirlwind of chaos. Because the last thing she wanted to do was to mess up everything she had with him.

Clare pushed back from the table, saving her document to her laptop and shutting it down, she had a couple minutes before the movie, enough to buy everyone food, not that she had exactly volunteered to do it, or agreed or even acknowledged it, but she wanted to please and why not? She could go for some candy right now.

"Mom?" Clare yelled up the stairs.

"Yeah honey?"

"I'm heading out to the movies."

"Alright." Her mother sounded a bit distracted, probably from all the work she'd busied herself with over the past couple of days, trying to distract herself from whatever she and Clare's father had discussed the other night.

"Inception, please." The cashier handed her the ticket and Clare meandered over to the direction she had been pointed in. Movie theaters always took her by surprise for the first couple milliseconds, when she came into the big room with stadium seating, which seemed to go quite high with plenty of seats. Thankfully it wasn't hard to find the three boys, who were gabbing away in the middle area. Just like she had left them, only in a different setting now. This time Adam was the first one to see her and shouted, a bit too loudly even for the time before the movie had started, "Clare! Where's our food?"

She couldn't help but laugh as she went over towards them, "Hey, I'm the one buying the food. Someone else needs to get it. And whomever that is needs to buy me some sour patch." She raised her eyebrows as the other two turned towards her also, now.

A long moment passed, all three boys much too lazy to bother getting up. But finally Adam gave out a long drawn sarcastic sigh, slowly getting up, "Oh... well I guess I'll get it."

Clare smiled at him pleased, and it turned into a smirk as she handed him some money. "You better give me change, or I'm never buying you guys food again."

Adam sauntered off towards the concessions out of the theater, and Clare took a seat next to Eli.

"So, Clare how's that family assignment going, the one due tomorrow?" Eli let a fake smile creep onto his face.

"What? What family assignment? She never assigned us a family assignment?" Clare started panicking, but Eli fell silent. "But- but, what? No..."

Laughing, Eli gave her a playful slap on the forearm and shook his head, "No I was just joking, I just love how you get so riled up about english so easily."

Grimacing, Clare leaned over towards Sav, two seats away next to where Adam was supposed to be, "Sav, would you mind trading seats with me?"

He was texting like a nightmare on his cell, to someone, and very distracted so all he sputtered out was, "Uh - uh - uh .. sure."

"Thanks." She gave Eli a sassy look getting ready to stand up and switch, but was brought down by Eli's hand pushing on her arm,

"Naw, I'm sorry! It was all in good fun. Forgive me?" The batting eyelashes again. They made her want to puke because of how cute they were, in a non-adorable but weird comical looking way.

Narrowing her eyes at him she let a few moments slip by then turned back to Sav, "Nevermind Sav."

Eli let out a "Ha!" before settling back in his seat again.

"But if you do anything to insult me or 'tease' me or whatever, I'm out. Got it?" She added a serious tone.

"Yeah yeah yeah, miss pr-" Eli stopped himself by biting his lip and holding back a laugh.

Clare rolled her eyes and then was pressed into her seat, letting Adam come by who exclaimed, "Ok so I got, popcorn, sour patch, two large sodas, I thought we could share. And this weird caramel chocolate thing in a box that I want to try."

A pack of sour patch rolled over to Clare, who tore them open slowly and with care so as not to rip the entire thing and lose a bunch of them, "How about change?"

Adam grinned, "Yup change!" Then handed her a penny.

"Thanks... Er - You can keep it."

The lights then dimmed and some trailers flickered on the screen, and there was total silence in the theater, except when Eli leaned close to Clare and whispered, "You know what the benefit of sitting next to me is?"

"Oh? There's a benefit?"

"Yeah, I've got a very comfortable shoulder, or so I've been told."

Clare let out a nervous giggle, and focused her eyes on the screen, she wasn't sure if he was just playing with her, or if he meant it, in a weird, you-can-rest-your-head-on-my-shoulder kind of way.

"Heck yes! Best movie this year! Best movie ever! Especially the SECOND TIME!" Adam's voice was ringing loudly in Clare's ear. -Shush!- She thought to herself, -I want to go back to sleep.-

Wait, what?

She was asleep?

Her eyes snapped open and her head shot up, steadying herself from a sudden head rush, "Woah, did I miss the end of the movie?" As her eyes finally focused she blinked a bit and looked over, oh no. She had fallen asleep on Eli's shoulder.

"Yep! I'm glad to see you took my advice to heart too." Eli grinned and got up with everyone else.

Clare's face turned a light red, getting up and trying to hide her face from him and the others. "Well thanks. It was quite comfortable. Apparently." She didn't even recall falling asleep. All she remembered was stuff about dreams, and creating things within dreams yet seeming so realistic. She'd have to rent it when it came out on DVD to see the end.

Looking at her watch, the light brite gleamed back at her, 9:30 PM. Normally that wouldn't be late. But right now it felt like the equivalent of 3 AM. "I'm heading back to my bed at home guys, bye."

Sav and Adam chorused some hearty good byes and goodnights, but Eli just left it at a bye.


End file.
